The present invention relates in general to firearms and in particular to a new and useful device which permits firing in either automatic or semi-automatic mode.
Firearms are known which include a fire selector which has three positions: (1) safety, which prevents firing; (2) semi-automatic, which permits firing of a single round each time the trigger is depressed; and (3) automatic, which permits firing for as long as the trigger is held.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,267,407 ("Safety Device for Semiautomatic Pistol"), issued Dec. 7, 1993 to Bornancini, discloses a three-position safety register, although the three positions do not include a fully automatic position. The Bornancini device is designed to select among locked, decocked and firing positions; it does not enable automatic mode operation of a semi-automatic pistol.
Prior art devices for permitting selection among modes exist, but involve complicated apparatus. Particularly in automatic mode, complication translates into risk of failure, such as jamming of the firearm. An example is provided in U.S. Patent No. 3,964,368 ("Automatic Pistol"), issued Jun. 22, 1976 to Safie. Safie permits operation in a semi-automatic or automatic (referred to in Safie as "burst firing") mode, by providing a selector lever (referred to in Safie as the stop selector member) which can be rotated to engage a shoulder on a trigger bar so as to engage a disconnector with a chamfered and bent end to maintain the disconnector out of engagement with a sear in order to permit burst firing, or rotated so as not to engage said shoulder, thereby allowing the disconnector to prevent firing of a second round until the trigger is released (semi-automatic more). Safie thus requires the manufacture of a pistol incorporating numerous special-purpose parts, and engineering to accomodate those parts.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide a firearm which can be fired in either automatic or semi-automatic mode, with reduced risk of jamming or other failure of the firearm and therefore greater reliability and reduced need for service.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a mechanism for allowing a firearm to be selectively set to either an automatic or semi-automatic mode at low cost and low level of complexity.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a mechanism for allowing a firearm to be converted from semi-automatic to selectable semi-automatic or automatic at a low cost and with high reliability and low level of complexity.
The various features of novelty which characterize the invention are pointed out with particularity in the claims annexed to and forming a part of this disclosure. For a better understanding of the invention, its advantages and objects, reference is made to the accompanying drawings and descriptive matter in which a preferred embodiment of the invention is illustrated.